


Promises Kept

by Milieu



Category: Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Pregnancy, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 04:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4046539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate take on Ventuswill's return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises Kept

_i. Gotta give it my all_

"There's a festival tomorrow!" 

Frey smiles at Lin Fa's cheery reminder. "Yep! Hope everyone's ready to eat squid for a whole week afterwards."

"Ah, there's nothing wrong with squid. Maybe I could make a seafood stew..." Lin Fa rests her cheek on her palm, contemplating it.

Frey nods along absently, wondering to herself what kind of bait would be best to attract lamp squid.

She doesn't end up catching any lamp squid the next day, but Leon seems just as content when presented with the regular squid that she grilled.

\---

Days become weeks and weeks become months, snow melts and flowers bloom. Frey tends to her field and the request box, and she eventually reaches the point where passing the empty pedestal where a god once sat only makes her heart ache a little.

She overhears Leon teasing Forte, and can't help but chuckle along with him when Forte exasperatedly reveals that Kiel tried to leave the house without a shirt that morning because of something that Leon told him.

He catches her eye when she passes and smiles, and she wonders if she'll have any more luck with the lamp squid today.

\---

"Ah, there you are."

She glances up from her crafting table and briefly wonders when it became okay for Leon to just invite himself into her room like this. "Did you need something?"

"Yes," He just strolls right up like he owns the place, and Frey could never expect any different from him. "I was wondering if you could spare any colored grass? I need to make more ink."

"I think I have some, let me look." She leaves the bits of metal on her table - she wasn't having much luck today anyway - and goes to rummage through her fridge. "What's it for?"

"This translation job I'm doing for Kiel. The document itself is quite old, so I'd rather not write directly on it."

Frey nods understandingly and hands over a bundle of black grass. "Is it from around your time?"

"Older, I believe. It's written in a language that was more or less dead even then. Ventuswill might-"

He catches himself and they are both suddenly very aware that it's the first time in a long while that anyone has spoken her name. The silence stretches past the point of awkward, and Frey is once again aware of the twinge in her chest that she has mostly been able to squash so far.

"Venti?" She urges him gently.

Leon regains his composure and nods. "She might have known it. She had already lived several hundred years by the time I became a priest."

"I see."

She does, but she also doesn't, not really. It boggles her mind to imagine living hundreds, maybe thousands of years, watching all of her friends go away one by one for one reason or another. She can barely tolerate the loss of one friend; how could Venti possibly stand losing so many time after time?

The answer of course, is that she had no choice in losing them, just as she had no choice in eventually leaving them behind herself. Frey knows this, deep down, but that doesn't lessen the sting.

She's brought out of her reverie by Leon placing his hand on her head. Her face heats up. "What?"

"Are you okay?" He's uncharacteristically serious, looking at her with concern.

She sighs. "I will be." She tries for a weak smile. "We all will eventually, won't we?"

Leon's gaze softens with understanding. "Yes," he says, the look in his eyes somehow far away. "Eventually."

\---

It's much later when she hears the story he was translating in full, and later still that she hears his other story - another friend left behind, another regret hidden behind a smile.

Unlike some, though, Frey knows that this story has a happy ending.

"What was it you wanted to say to me again?" She nudges Leon gently as they stand in front of the tower, gazing at the aged papers in his hands, the last story of an old friend.

He meets her eyes, and the faraway look is gone. "I'm home, Frey."

He reaches out to her, and she folds into him.

"Welcome home, Leon."

 

_ii. This one's for you, Venti_

"In place of the mighty Lady Ventuswill... I, Volkanon, will be presiding over this marriage ceremony..."

Frey is unashamed of her trembling hands, if only because she can feel Leon's hand shaking ever so slightly as well.

"May the Native Dragons bless this newlywed couple!"

 _They do,_ she thinks. _I know they do. Wherever they are._

_Wherever you are, Venti, thank you for your blessing._

\---

Days become weeks and weeks become months, leaves fall and the ground is dusted with snow once again. Frey finally,  _finally_ , catches that damn lamp squid, and waves it in Leon's face until he threatens to take it and just eat it raw if she won't quit. They carve their names into the rail of the airship -  _with everlasting love and impregnable trust_ \- and hold each other tight on top of the observatory at Christmas, gazing up at the stars to make a wish.

"What did you wish for?" Leon prods her.

"If I tell you, it won't come true."

"A kind of magic that loses its power if you share it, hm? Rather selfish, don't you think?"

Frey makes a face at him. "Fine. I wished for everyone in Selphia to be happy, okay?"

He grins at her. "That's quite the wish. Very 'you', if you know what I mean."

She rolls her eyes. "Well, what did you wish for?"

"I only wished for you to get your wish." And she can only sigh, because it's so very "Leon" to say such a thing.

\---

"Do you like trivia?" He asks her one rainy morning as she trudges in from the field, trying not to track mud all over the place.

"I guess?" There's no way to tell where he's going with this, as is all too often the case with Leon.

He smiles enigmatically. "Well then, here's a bit of trivia about me: I happen to love children."

"...Oh." Her face heats as she catches his implication, feeling for a moment like she did at the beginning of their courtship all over again.

"Just so you know." He turns away to go about his morning business, leaving her flustered.

Days become weeks and weeks become months, and Frey is sure that there is no sweeter victory than when she catches him off-guard with some trivia of her own.

 

_iii. I miss her..._

Unfortunately, all the joy and eagerness of parents-to-be does not ensure an easy pregnancy. Frey is sure that she's sleeping more than she ever has in her life, but she's still more tired than she's ever been. She's always hungry, and she always aches, and though she tries to keep a positive attitude, some days she just can't keep from being ill-tempered.

Most disconcerting, however, are the dreams.

In her dreams, she sees flowers brighter and more numerous than any in real life. She sees strange, half-formed monsters out of the corner of her eye, which disappear when she turns to look. She sees roads that she has traveled and places that she is certain she doesn't remember but which stir up an ache in the very core of her being. She sees faces that she is sure she knows but which she cannot recall upon waking.

Once, she sleepwalks, and she only knows it because she wakes to find herself weeping in the snow on Ventuswill's abandoned pedestal, with Leon hovering over her in a panic. When he leads her back to bed, she dreams again.

She can't recall what this one was about when she wakes again in the morning, but it brings her peace.

\---

The last dream comes just days before the baby does, and Frey wakes not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

In her dream, she was in the castle as usual, holding what she knew was her baby, only it was and wasn't hers at the same time. Everything was bright and warm, and for the first time in many months, she was simply content. _  
_

Her baby giggled, and she glanced down at it just in time to see the unfurling of a pair of shimmering, feathery wings.

\---

Selphia gains a new member on the fourth day of Spring, just after the first rays of dawn stretch across the front plaza. 

Leon is absolutely awestruck, all but brought to his knees by the sight of his wife and newborn daughter, and Frey giggles at him.

"She has your eyes."

"Don't be ridiculous," he says briskly. "She's far too cute to look anything like me." His tone belies the tenderness with which he strokes her forehead, turning to brush his lips across her mother's cheek.

"Have you thought of a name?"

"I thought we agreed that was your job."

She's far too tired to scold him for teasing at a time like this, and assures herself that she'll get him back for it later. "I've given it some thought..."

"And?"

"What about..."

_Ventuswill._

"What do you think of 'Luna'?"

"Luna." Leon says it thoughtfully, seeming to test the feel and taste of it on his tongue. He nods. "Luna. It suits her."

Frey smiles and rocks her daughter gently. "There you go, Luna. Welcome to the world."

 

_iv. ..._

"Mommy, Mommy!"

Frey is awoken before dawn by the excited little hands shaking her arm. "Luna? What is it?"

A cherubic face beams at her in the bluish early-morning light. "Guess what day it is!"

She can't help but smile, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and elbowing Leon in the ribs when he groans and pulls a pillow over his head. "What day is it?"

Luna bounces excitedly on the balls of her feet. "It's my birthday!"

"Is it?" She teases lightly.

"Yes! And Daddy said he'd teach me some magic today!"

From underneath the pillow, Leon mumbles something about reasonable working hours and Frey makes a mental note to remind him that "reasonable" has never been in his vocabulary. "I'm sure he will, after we all have breakfast and you get your presents, right?"

Luna takes her hand and pulls her out of bed to face the day.

\---

Frey regards the damaged wall of her bedroom without amusement. "Sonic Wind, Leon?"

He holds his hands up defensively. "I said I'd let her choose which one she wanted to learn, and that's the one she picked."

"So you decided to teach it to her  _indoors_?" 

"If we tried it in the field it could damage your crops, and if we tried it anywhere else it could damage the neighbors' homes. Or the neighbors themselves." Leon points out.

Frey sighs, loathe to admit that he has a point. "I guess Volkanon can fix this without much trouble..."

Luna perks up once it's clear that her parents aren't really fighting. "Want me to do it again so you can see, Mommy?"

Frey can't quite suppress her smile. "Let's move the furniture out of the way first."

Luna proves to have an unusual natural aptitude for wind magic, considering that neither of her parents is especially gifted in it.

\---

"Daddy, why did you and Mommy get married?"

Leon considers his words carefully, knowing that anything he says is liable to be repeated to anyone within earshot. "We made a promise."

"A promise to get married?" Luna's eyes sparkle, thoughts no doubt swirling with fairy tale notions.

He smiles. "No, not this time."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of clarifying that statement, he continues, "I promised to always make her happy."

Luna considers that. "And did you?"

He chuckles softly. "I like to think so. Do you think she's happy?"

"Yes!" She nods vigorously. "...And you're happy too, right?"

"I am happier and happier every day," he assures her.

"Good," she says, and is quiet for a few minutes before something else seems to occur to her. "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Did you make any other promises?"

Oh so many. Promises he couldn't keep, promises he didn't fully understand. "A few."

"To Mommy?"

"No, not to Mommy. To old friends."

"Did you make them happy too?"

It's his turn to consider. "I hope so. They made me very happy while I knew them."

Luna nods again, solemnly this time, and takes his hand as indication that it's time to go home.

\---

Days will become weeks and weeks will become months and months will become years. She will grow into a lovely young woman and bring life and joy to Selphia just as her parents did. She will explore, and fight, and learn, and love. She will leave her own legacy, whatever it may be, and she will not be bound by anything but her own choices.

Her secret name, the one that lives and is spoken only in her mother's heart, will always be Ventuswill. Someday, she too may dream of the Forest of Beginnings and see an inkling of who or what she once was, or might have been, or might be again.

For now, she scampers ahead of Leon to run inside. "Mommy, we're home!"

Frey looks up and smiles.

"Welcome home."

**Author's Note:**

> In my save file where I married Leon, our kid was born on Spring 4 (Ventuswill's birthday). It was a boy in-game, but it gave me the inspiration for this and I just ran with it. I think the meanings of everything is pretty clear, at least by the end, but let me know in the comments if it's too confusing.


End file.
